KDE is thrilled to announce the first at-large version of KDE neon User Edition.

KDE neon User Edition 5.6 installer

KDE neon User Edition 5.6 is based on the latest version of Plasma 5.6 and intends to showcase the latest KDE technology on a stable foundation. It is a continuously updated installable image that can be used not just for exploration and testing but as the main operating system for people enthusiastic about the latest desktop software.

Today we kick off the third Krita kickstarter! It's beginning to become a tradition. Last year, our Kickstarter backers funded the development of performance improvements and animation support -- and a bunch of other features. Right now, we're still working on finishing up the Krita 3.0 release before we implement the last of the stretch goals you all helped fund last year.

The KDE e.V. report for the first half of 2015 is now available. It presents a survey of all the activities and events carried out, supported, and funded by KDE e.V. in that period, as well as the reporting of major events, conferences and mentoring programs that KDE has been involved in.

Kai Uwe Broulik reports from open source conference Augsburger Linux-Tag which happened in Bavaria last weekend.

On Saturday, 16 April I had the honor of representing KDE at the 15. Augsburger Linux-Tag, one of the oldest and largest Linux gatherings in southern Germany.

Konqi guarding the KDE booth

It was my first time attending such an event and it was a great experience. With me I had a computer running the latest and greatest KDE neon with Plasma 5.6 – hooked up to a gorgeous 4K monitor. In addition to that I brought a Nexus 5 running Plasma Mobile and an infrared remote control for browsing Plasma Media Center.

Like a routine now, the KDE PIM spring sprint was held in Toulouse again, first week of April at Ekito's city center office, many thanks to them.

First of all thank to all the participants: Franck Arrecot, Andre Heinecke, Sandro Knauß, Volker Krause, John Layt, Christian Mollekopf, Laurent Montel, Kevin Ottens, Daniel Vrátil that made of this sprint an awesome moment.

As a general theme you could say we were preparing the future of PIM with the goal of stability: reducing some library dependencies, designing a way to reach a better internal architecture, cleaner codebase and improving communication among each contributor of the suite on the release process.

KDE is a highly diverse community and every one of our contributors has his or her own motives, such as having fun, developing new skills and meeting nice people. However, a common desire unites all of KDE: to change the world for the better. This shared motivation, although the major driving force behind KDE, has never really been made explicit.

A survey conducted among KDE contributors and users last year showed that the respondents were missing exactly that: an explicit vision and strategy for KDE. As a result, we began working on a shared vision at last year's Akademy (KDE's annual contributor conference). After months of collecting ideas and holding open discussion across our community, we have united around a simple statement of what we want to achieve:

A world in which everyone has control over their digital life and enjoys freedom and privacy.

QtCon 2016 Call for Papers is open. The event will assemble KDE Akademy, VideoLAN Developer Days, Qt Contributors' Summit, FSFE Summit and KDAB Qt training day. We invite contributors to these projects to present their work and insight at QtCon 2016. The conference will take place from 1st to 8th September in Berlin, Germany. The talks will be from 2nd to 4th with KDE continuing with BoFs till the 8th

KDE has a long tradition of providing user interface components beyond the basics that are offered in Qt itself. With KDE Frameworks 5, these have become more easily available for Qt developers who are not part of KDE. Now, with KDE's focus expanding beyond desktop and laptop computers into the mobile and embedded sector, our QWidgets-based components alone are not sufficient anymore. In order to allow developers to easily create Qt-based applications that run on any major mobile or desktop operating system (including our very own existing Plasma Desktop and upcoming Plasma Mobile, of course), we have created a framework that extends the touch-friendly Qt Quick Controls: Welcome Kirigami UI!

In March, the yearly meeting of KDE's Plasma team was held in Geneva, kindly hosted by the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN). In-person meetings provide unique opportunities to work together face-to-face, at high bandwidth to tackle problems together and plan for the future. As there were some other groups present during this meeting, notably the visual design group and the Wiki cleanup team, there was ample opportunity to think outside of the Plasma box.

The Plasma team discussed many topics that are currently being worked on, or need more attention, but also sat down to hack on the code. The result was a nice mix of hands-on activities and dreaming of the future.